Pope Leo XIV received Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, “foreign minister” of the Moscow Patriarchate, on July 26, 2025. This was the first official meeting between the pontiff, elected on May 8, and a representative of Patriarch Kirill.
Under Pope Francis, Metropolitan Anthony, who has been president of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations since June 2022, visited the Vatican several times. His last meeting with the Argentine pontiff was on July 11, 2024. Francis and the metropolitan also met during an interfaith summit in Kazakhstan in September 2022.
The Holy See did not give any details about the first meeting between the Russian representative and the new pope.
In an interview with La Repubblica on Thursday, Antoine de Volokolamsk said he wanted to talk with Leo XIV “about the prospects for the development of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church” and cooperation between Christians “in a rapidly secularizing world.”
On the war
It is possible that during their private meeting, Pope Leo XIV once again mentioned his willingness to host “negotiations” between the Russian and Ukrainian sides at the Vatican, as he did when he received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 9 at Castel Gandolfo.
The pontiff's proposal was deemed “unrealistic” by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
In the pages of the Italian daily, Metropolitan Anthony also stated on this subject: “A mediator should be neutral in order to maintain a balanced dialogue between the parties. I am not sure that the Roman Catholic Church can be considered neutral.”
The Russian Patriarchate particularly criticizes the Holy See for not having “disavowed” the leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church who, according to him, make “Russophobic statements.”
The metropolitan also mentioned the aborted plan for a second meeting between Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Pope Francis after their 2016 meeting. While their reunion was planned for June 2022 in Jerusalem, the war made it impossible.
For the Patriarchate, the ball is now in Rome's court. “Since it was the Holy See that renounced this meeting, we remain available to examine any new proposal on its part,” Metropolitan Anthony told La Repubblica. He assured that there had been “no initiative of this kind” since the election of Leo XIV.
